The Internet provides a wealth of information that is readily available to users having access to the network. Because of the great number of information sources available, search engines and directories are commonly employed in an effort to identify, locate, access and retrieve information from sources via the Internet. However, the rapid expansion of information available via the Internet has sometimes hindered rather than helped a user searching for information, as the desired information is hidden or completely supplanted by the irrelevant. To the consternation of users, search engines often miss relevant information or are unable to parse through directories and web pages to focus a search and retrieve the most relevant information.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system for and method of identifying information pertinent to a user. A further need exists for a system and method that automatically identifies resources based on accessability to the user.
An object of the invention is to incorporate topological criteria in identifying network available resources. The topological criteria may be in the form of the physical location of a user vis-a-vis a location of a desired resource or may include a data path topology for accessing resources closest on a data network. Location information about the user is automatically supplied and incorporated into a locally or remotely initiated and/or executed search for and of resources.
Another object of the invention is to provide an information rich navigation or xe2x80x9cmobile conciergexe2x80x9d service, automatically providing information from remote sources based on the location of the user. Features of the navigation system may include a graphical map display of geographical features such as roads, streets, cities, airports, etc., augmented by facility information, such as rest stops, points of interest, etc. The system may further obtain and display dynamically changing information, such as road conditions (e.g., accidents, vehicular congestion, police activity, construction, surface conditions, etc.) weather, local events, alerts, etc. The information may be graphically displayed as part of a moving map and/or provided as text. As applicable, other means of presentation may also be employed, such as audio playback of sound files or speech resultant from local or remote text-to-speech conversion of information.
The invention provides enhanced search results of resources by including user location information criteria to select resources based on availability and accessability to the user. According to one aspect of the invention, user location information is provided to a server which prioritizes information retrieval and resource identification based on proximity. Such proximity may include physical location with respect to the requestor or network accessibility wherein resources traversing a minimal span of a network or subnetwork are identified in preference to more distantly connected resources. Proximity may be calculated directly (e.g., great circle distance between map coordinates or link distance between network nodes) or as distance to the resource (e.g., travel time, time for detour from route, total time to transfer data, bandwidth, path cost distance, etc.) One embodiment includes implementation of topological criteria using either client or server facilities, or both. Thus, a server may solicit or otherwise obtain location information from a client, such as the location of a user, location of a desired resource, routing or route of travel, etc., and use the location information to identify resources (e.g., shopping and service facilities, Internet servers and mirror sites, etc.) satisfying topographical criteria in addition to other search criteria, such as having selected key words (e.g., crawler based searches), falling within specified classes or types of resources (e.g., directory based listings), etc.
In the case of portable devices, the invention combines the position identifying capability of GPS (Global Positioning System) with the information available via the Internet. This provides a unified device that uses present position to determine distances to points of interest identified using information available on the Internet. Thus, the invention incorporates remotely accessible information into a positionally relevant display to provide enhanced maps, text, and other forms of information in a mobile environment. The remotely accessible information may be obtained, for example, via the Internet. According to a feature of the invention, the system may access a device specific resource to obtain device program database updates and to provide supplementary information about road conditions, local points-of-interest, etc. According to another feature, a system according to the invention automatically searches Internet sites and resources for information pertinent to a present position of a vehicle or mobile user by employing search engines and other information retrieval agents and automatic hyperlink following features.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method of identifying information based on topological criteria include identification of information to be retrieved based on topological criteria. A search is conducted of a resource (e.g., database(s)) for the class of information also satisfying the topological criteria. The class of information may be identifiable by a key (e.g., indicative of a category of information such as weather statistics for an area or of a facility such as local accommodations, restaurants, etc.) The topological criteria may include a location of a requestor so that the search may be centered on that location; the location of some remote site such as a planned destination; or a route of travel. The key and location are transmitted to a remote server and a result of the search (i.e., a reply) is returned to the requestor.
According to a feature of the invention, communications is established with the resource using a communications network wherein the location is relative to a topology of the communications network. Thus, for example, a local or wide area network (LAN or WAN) or the Internet may be used to access a resource with the location of the resource on the network relative to the requestor being a criteria for selecting a resource (e.g., server or other network node).
According to another feature of the invention, communications is established with the resource and target data associated with respective physical facilities is returned in response to the key and the topological criteria wherein the location is relative to a geographic (i.e., map) location of either the requestor or that of the physical facilities. The physical facilities may be identified by respective street addresses or other form of addressing scheme including ordered pairs of latitude and longitude values, zipcode, zip+4, telephone number, etc.
According to another aspect of the invention, location information is communicated to a remote server using a common gateway interface (CGI.) The CGI provides for automatic transmission of client location information using, for example, pre-stored address data contained in a web browser xe2x80x9ccookiexe2x80x9d. Alternatively, the CGI may be used to transmit information entered into a form page by a user. Geographic search criteria may be defined based on the topological criteria. A list of facilities having the class of information and satisfying the topological criteria is transmitted back by the server to the client.
According to another aspect of the invention, the resource may be a remote database of destinations to which to travel. Thus, identifying a topological criteria may include determining a current location and searching the database. The search may include selecting those destinations satisfying a first proximity criteria to identify candidate destinations. The proximity criteria may include line-of-sight (i.e., great circle distance) between points such as the current location and the location of the destination. An alternative criterion considers proximity to a proposed itinerary and/or planned route of travel. Still another alternative considers proximity of resources to each other so as to minimize travel distance and/or time if several destinations are to be visited. The current location is compared to a location of the candidate destination using second proximity criteria and the candidate destinations are displayed together with associated results of the comparison. Current location may be determined by various means including using an earth orbiting based GPS.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method of identifying resources includes accessing a remote server from a client and transmitting a displayable form to the client. Location information is encoded with a request for identification of a class of resources, all of which is transmitted to the remote server. A database search is performed to identify resources contained within the class, e.g., user facilities such as restaurants and hotels, and network facilities such as gateways, databases, mirror sites, etc. The search also attempts to satisfy proximity criteria based on the location information to identify a list of resources for transmission to the client. Results are displayed so as to indicate a degree to which search criteria are satisfied. Thus, resources may be listed in order of distance, travel time, proximity to route of travel, etc. This listing may also take into consideration a confidence level of the search results to prefer resources most closely satisfying search criteria. Thus, an indication may be provided to emphasize nearby resources having a high probability of satisfying search criteria (e.g., those resulting in a good match of search terms) over more distant resources having a low confidence level.
Weighting of location and class search results may further take into consideration proximity of resources to each other so that an accumulated confidence level is computed, reflecting an enhanced likelihood that at least one of several relatively nearby resources will be able to satisfy a user""s requirements with one trip or detour.
According to a feature of the invention, location information is encoded using a CGI to transmit the location information from the client to the server. The method may further include a step of calculating a position of the client using, for example, GPS or address information supplied by the client. The method may further store information in the database in connection with each of the resources in a form such that the resources are accessible based on the class and the proximity criteria. Accordingly, the database may support multidimensional searches for both location of a resource and some other criteria, such as service provided, etc.
According to another aspect of the invention, an information server includes a database of resources searchable by both (i) location criteria and (ii) a category of resource criteria. A communications interface provides connectivity to a data network (e.g., LAN, WAN, Internet, etc.) A computer, processor, or other control element or logic is configured. (e.g., programmed) to receive an inquiry from a client on the data network. The inquiry may be, for example, a request to locate a nearby facility, access to a software download database, etc. The control logic responds to the request by transmitting a form to the client, the form including a request for a location of the client and a category of resources requested by the client. The location request may be explicit, requiring, for example, manual entry of an address, or may initiate processing to automatically provide address information, either directly or indirectly. The category may be in the form of a class of resource to be found (e.g., specifying products or services offered for sale) or be some other search mechanism, such as one or more key words. Once client location and category are supplied, resources within the category of resources requested by the client and located nearest the client are identified.
According to a feature of the invention, location information about the client is supplied in a format including one of (i) a street address, (ii) a postal zipcode, (iii) city and state information, (iv) latitude and longitude values, (v) an area code in accordance with the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), and (vi) Telephone Number Area Code and Prefix (NPA-NXX).
According to another aspect of the invention, a mobile navigation assistant includes positioning logic providing a current position of the assistant. A wireless communications system is connected to a remote database of facilities. An input device receives a search criteria, an indication of facilities satisfying the search criteria being identified and displayed together with positional information relative to said current position. The mobile navigation assistant may also include GPS access providing the positional logic, or a database of map information, where the display provides a graphic representation of the facilities and the current position. The user can input a category of the facilities, may access a database through the Internet, and may have the display provided on a heads-up display presentation. The display may indicate best choices by icon type, size, color, brightness, etc., so that facilities best satisfying search criteria and closest to a specified location are emphasized over others. System inputs may come from manually activated switch mounted on a vehicular steering wheel or a speech recognition system.
According to another aspect of the invention, a vehicular navigation system includes a graphical display mounted in a motorized vehicle. A location system responds to data provided by a constellation of earth orbiting satellites (e.g. GPS) to provide a current position of the vehicle. A wireless communications system provides data communications with resources connected to the Internet. An input device is configured to receive a manual selection input from a user. A map database, including information about routes, is graphically displayed to provide a moving map of the routes relative to a current position together with an indication of information from the Internet. Internet information may include distances to resources from the current location. The input device may include a graphic input device for selecting a facility identified by the graphical display with the wireless communications system configured to retrieve information about the selected facility from the Internet.
Another feature of the invention provides for supplemental and manual access to the Internet using a combination of GPS derived positional and time data, manually provided data using touch panel, keyboard, speech recognition, and other forms of operator initiated input. The system also accepts, incorporates and uses vehicle sensor derived information such as speed and direction, inside/outside temperature, vehicle system status and alerts, airbag deployment, cellular telephone derived information, etc. The system may further track sites already visited or otherwise eliminated from consideration to update the display of resources and, if desired, initiate a new search.
According to another feature of the invention, GPS and Internet data is combined and processed together with information available from, and used to supplement other systems. For example, the system may automatically dial telephone numbers to make reservations or appointments or integrate with an automatic toll collection system to speed travel along toll roads and through toll plazas.
The present invention is directed to a system and method which displays location dependent information through the steps of determining its current location, accessing an electronic database, selecting potential destinations from the electronic database, comparing the current location to the potential destinations, generating comparison criteria for comparing the potential destinations and displaying the potential destinations and the comparison data to the user. The current location can be determined through the use of a global positioning system, user input, a selection from a defined list or a street address. The electronic information accessed can be the Internet or a similar facility or information source. The selection of potential destinations is based on the user""s input and potential destinations can be categorized by comparisons performed between alternative potential destinations.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.